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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Tamil Nadu and Kerala are among India’s most socially advanced states, with new governments ready to take charge. They are faced with a more complex challenge than many parts of the world that are still grappling with basic developmental deficits.How do they maintain prosperity, create more economic resilience and generate the next wave of opportunity?The numbers tell a powerful story.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.At 65, Vijaya Chakravarty thought she was ready to retire. After a long career as a landscape designer, the idea of slowing down seemed natural. But retirement, as the 72-year-old writer and nature educator says, turned out to be less of an ending and more of a reinvention.Today, retirees like Chakravarty are moving beyond quiet sunset years and turning decades of experience into second income streams.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Chennai: For years, Tamil Nadu has punched beyond its weight. With just 4% of India’s land area and 6% of its population, the state’s contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024-25 was 9.4%.The state’s economy is growing much faster than India’s 6.5%. Even as foreign direct investment (FDI) into India has slowed, foreign investors continue to bet big on Tamil Nadu.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.A viral narrative on social media last week casts Sam Bankman-Fried as “a genius at picking generational winners.” The figures cited are eye-catching. An 8% stake in Anthropic, acquired for $500 million, is now said to be worth over $30 billion.A $200,000 investment in a tiny AI startup, Cursor, is framed as having grown into a multibillion-dollar stake. Add in Solana, SpaceX, and Robinhood.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Many years ago, in 1971, Peter Kilby wrote that understanding entrepreneurship is like hunting a ‘heffalump,’ a fictional elephant-like creature from Winnie-the-Pooh.Many claim to have captured it, but their descriptions do not match and no two agree on what it looks like. After centuries of research, we are still arguing about what an entrepreneur really is.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The government is set to roll out the third iteration of the Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI) in May, strengthening its push for evidence-based planning at the grassroots level, said Sushil Kumar Lohani, additional secretary in the ministry of panchayati raj.PAI, first launched for 2022-23, is a composite index to assess the performance and progress of gram panchayats across India by using socio-economic indicators, identifying development gaps and supporting evidence-based planning. The introduction of PAI 3.0 for 2025-26 is expected to transform rural areas by enhancing service delivery, infrastructure and livelihoods.With about 65% of India’s population living in the rural areas, PAI could significantly improve transparency and accountability, ultimately transforming living standards and accelerating inclusive growth across almost 665,000 villages.The updated index builds on earlier versions that have already been adopted by several states as a core planning tool.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Recent months have seen worker protests across states. Workers protested low wages and poor work conditions in an IOCL factory in Barauni, Bihar, in February. This was followed by protests in Surat, Gujarat.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.WASHINGTON—Hours after gunfire erupted outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Sen. Kevin Cramer called President Trump to check on him.

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.BENGALURU: India’s café chains are moving beyond traditional coffee-led formats and experimenting with dessert-focused concepts, hybrid cafés and experience-led stores to drive higher engagement and spending.Last week, Westbridge Capital-backed Third Wave Coffee launched “Third Rush” at four of its outlets in Bengaluru, branding and positioning desserts as a standalone experience aimed at enhancing late-evening socializing.“We see desserts evolving into a strategic lever that supports higher engagement and ticket size,” Rajat Luthra, chief executive officer (CEO) of Third Wave Coffee, told Mint.Barista Coffee recently started diner-style outlets that offer a more expansive set of meal items like burgers and pastas and hybrid cafés that serve coffee and food items, while Tata Starbucks already has desserts as part of its food menu and is expanding a mix of neighbourhood stores and more immersive Reserve formats.These formats are becoming more specialized. Dessert-led menus and artisanal bakery tie-ups are helping chains move beyond beverages into full-stack consumption.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Wu Jingliang, a human resources manager in Beijing, got a raise at the beginning of the year, and the first financial move her family made was to increase their monthly savings rate.“I don’t dare spend, because I have a child. The child will need schooling later, and then there’s marriage or buying a home—we definitely need to save up a sum of money for him,” she told Barron’s in a phone interview.Conversations with other Chinese consumers revealed similar caution, all relating to feelings of financial insecurity.Beijing keeps rolling out consumption stimulus, and Chinese consumers keep responding with less enthusiasm than policymakers hoped.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In the attention economy, where user time is the scarcest commodity, platforms such as content sites, OTT services and social networks are competing for every second of engagement. Several studies peg Gen Z attention spans at just around eight seconds, less than that of a goldfish.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—President Trump scrapped a trip by U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan for talks with Iran, leaving himself tough choices over how to force Iran to make concessions the White House wants to strike a deal.Trump said on Saturday that he had decided to cancel the trip after receiving an offer from Iran that fell short of the White House’s expectations.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.New Delhi: The electronics technology ministry is moving to tighten its grip on how social media giants disclose artificial intelligence-generated content, proposing a ‘continuous’ watermarking mandate to prevent platforms from avoiding transparency rules.The ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) issued a draft amendment on Tuesday that would require labels on AI-modified media to be clearly visible throughout the duration of a video or image. The proposal follows government frustration with current practices, where firms have allegedly used fleeting or obscured markers that satisfy the letter of the law while failing to inform the public.Tuesday’s amendment, a copy of which Mint has reviewed, targeted Rule 3(3)(a)(ii) of India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, updating the previous proposal to social media companies for “prominent visibility” of AI labels.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Ganga mostly flows east-southeast across the Indo-Gangetic alluvial plains towards its mouth in Kolkata. As it approaches Varanasi in eastern Uttar Pradesh (UP), it encounters something unusual: an outlier of ancient Vindhyan sandstone that juts northward into the otherwise soft alluvial plain. The river cannot cut through this resistant rock as easily as through alluvium, so instead of continuing straight eastward, it deflects northward, running along the western flank of this Vindhyan rock ridge.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.For centuries, Santhal and Gond tribes in central and eastern India have called the mahua tree the ‘tree of life’ as an ode to its versatility: from a nutrient-dense edible flower to local arrack to cooking oils made from seeds, it’s sturdy wood is used in carpentry and nearly every part of the tree is used in traditional medicine.Add the latest end-use of madhuca longifolia, the scientific name for the mahua tree: turn its bitter-sweet flowers into fine chocolates and granola for the discerning and well-paying urban consumer.Meet Rishabh Lohia, a young social entrepreneur from Ranchi in Jharkhand, giving mahua the contemporary makeover. A former student of economics who found inspiration in Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s writings, Lohia left his family’s real estate business in 2024 to launch Wild Harvest, a packaged food brand specializing in mahua products.For Lohia and his partner Ashali Bhandari, building Wild Harvest is akin to creating a new category in the ever-expanding fast-moving consumer goods basket.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.If you’ve ever hesitated before approving a UPI request or double-checked a QR code before scanning, you’re not alone. As UPI becomes central to everyday payments, concerns around fraud are rising alongside its growth.As per government data shared in Parliament, 10.64 lakh UPI fraud cases worth ₹805 crore were reported in FY26 (till November).The Reserve Bank of India’s proposal to introduce a one-hour cooling-off period for new or high-value UPI payments above ₹10,000 is the latest step aimed at curbing such frauds.At the same time, another digital payment option has quietly evolved in the background: the e-rupee, or India’s central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.It has been an eventful week – once again dominated by developments around the US-Israel-Iran war.Iran said on Friday (17 April) that the Strait of Hormuz is open. The announcement came almost simultaneously from US President Donald Trump (via Truth Social) and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (on X).“In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire, on the coordinated route as already announced by Ports and Maritime Organisation of the Islamic Rep.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Dozens of world leaders were discussing how to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in a videoconference on Friday when a murmur went up among the presidents and prime ministers. Aides off-screen began furiously tapping their shoulders and passing them notes.In the middle of the meeting, led by France and Britain, President Trump declared on social media he had reached a breakthrough with Iran and the strait would be fully reopened.Foreign leaders, aware that Trump has declared victory before, stayed on the line and kept planning.The details of the coalition meeting, described by several officials on the line, underscored the mix of head-spinning confusion and cautious optimism that has gripped foreign leaders and financial markets over Trump’s efforts to strong-arm Iran into a peace deal.For several hours on Friday, through a series of interviews and social-media posts, Trump insisted he got most of what he wanted from Iran after launching a war against the U.S.’s largest Middle Eastern rival: A full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, falling oil prices, a promise from Iran that it would give up its supply of enriched uranium, and commitments for Iran to halt its support for proxy terror groups in the region.Trump’s optimism had followed a social-media post by Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, declaring the Strait of Hormuz “completely open” during the cease-fire.Then walk-backs began.Mahmoud Nabavian, a conservative lawmaker and member of Iran’s negotiating team, rebuffed Trump’s announcement that the strait was fully open.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Jordan Blair was behind the wheel when she realized she had picked the wrong podcast to listen to.“Today, we’re touching down in the ’70s to talk about Chippendales. Not these guys. Theeeese guys, whose name strangely comes from…this guy,” Harvey Guillén, the host of “Killer Stories,” said in the episode’s intro.“Who? What?” Blair recalled thinking.